Filling massive nursing shortages at Epsom and St Helier with third world staff is not ethical, according to the woman charged with implementing the policy.

And union chiefs have warned atrocious' staff quarters have led a number of overseas staff to walk out on positions at the trust and could cause retention problems among future recruits from the developing world.

Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust director of nursing and clinical development Rosemary Robinson, who has just returned from a recruitment drive in the Philippines, said recruiting overseas was depriving developing nations of some of their most qualified and talented nurses.

At last Friday's trust board meeting, she said: "I don't feel it's ethical to take good nurses from developing countries."

She stressed: "They are coming to the UK because we want them to we need them to help with our health service."

Mrs Robinson made offers to 33 Filipino nurses though this is no guarantee they will take up their positions but said the nursing chief of a Manila hospital told her the UK's gain was the Philippines' loss.

Trust Unison representative Kevin O'Brien agreed there was a problem, saying: "I can understand the response of the director of nursing in Manila that we are taking their cream."

The trust has had to turn to the Philippines and South Africa to shore up numbers of permanent nursing staff, in the face of chronic shortages and its spiralling budget for agency nurses, which has topped £3.5 million already this year. Just £187,000 was budgeted for external 2001/2.

According to acting chief executive John de Braux: "One advantage of overseas recruitment is that you boost permanent staff levels immediately."

But according to Mr O'Brien: "The hospital accommodation is atrocious. If we don't improve it, they will continue to leave." He said a number of South African nurses hired by the trust had quit their posts for this reason.

Mr de Braux pledged: "We will take a look around the staff accommodation so we can make our own assessments of what the problems are."

October 26, 2001 13:30